mRNA breakthrough for cancer treatment, AI of the week, Commitment

Things are speeding up.

Rate of technology adoption will become more and more of a bottleneck for societal progress.

Thing 1 - Revolutionary mRNA Breakthrough: When Cancer Fights Itself

Nagoya University researchers have developed an exciting new technology called ICIT mRNA that represents a significant leap forward in medical treatment possibilities. This innovative approach to mRNA technology offers several remarkable advantages:

Key Breakthroughs

• Enhanced Protein Production: ICIT mRNA produces 103-189 times more protein than conventional mRNA technologies, with potential for increasing therapeutic effectiveness.
• Improved Durability: The modified mRNA persists longer in the body, which could reduce the need for frequent doses.
• Reduced Immune Response: Lower inflammation and immune activation means treatments may cause fewer side effects.
• Precision Targeting: The technology can be directed to specific cells, such as tumor cells, while preserving healthy tissue.

The Science Behind It

ICIT uses circular mRNA with a specialized "cap" that enhances protein production efficiency. This approach already demonstrated superior performance compared to the mRNA technology used in COVID-19 vaccines in laboratory and mouse studies.

Potential Applications

This breakthrough could transform treatment approaches for:

• Cancer Therapy: Developing treatments that specifically target cancer cells while leaving healthy cells intact, with liver cancer already being investigated.
• Genetic Disorders: Potential to provide missing proteins for conditions like Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
• Improved Vaccines: it could be possible to create longer-lasting vaccines that require fewer booster shots.
• Future Possibilities: The technology could lead to applications in muscle enhancement, cognitive function...

Why This Matters

Apart from the obvious... ICIT mRNA technology is also practical. It's more cost-effective to produce, adaptable for different uses, and designed for scalability.

This advancement could redefine our approach to medicine. From personalized cancer therapies to new solutions for genetic diseases, ICIT mRNA technology marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in medical science.

Thing 2 - AI of the week

• Hume released Octave - unlike traditional TTS that just "reads" words aloud, Octave understands how meaning affects delivery to generate emotional, human-like speech.
• Sesame demoed their expressive voice technology, highlighting their focus on lifelike interactions. It feels alive! Try it out!
• Anthropic released Claude 3.7 Sonnet. It's a hybrid reasoning model. One model, 2 ways to think. They focused on coding and it slaps (it's good).
• Alibaba open-sourced Wan 2.1 - AI model that generates videos from text and images, edits video and creates audio!
• Figure announced they are launching their robots into homes because Helix (their AI) is advancing faster than they anticipated.
• OpenAI released GPT 4.5 to Pro customers - their largest and most knowledgeable model to date. If you don't have $200/m for the Pro account, you can get access through Perplexity for 10x less 🙃

Thing 3 - Commitment and choice

You and your best friends don’t decide anew each day whether you’re friends or not.
You are friends, without question.
You’re committed to each other, even if you’ve never said so.
That’s what’s wonderful about it.

- Derek Sivers

Commitment makes the choice easy.

Cheers, Zvonimir